looking

the floods in iowa are crazy and heartbreaking. the pictures on this blog are pretty incredible.



this is rad



and though youve probably already seen this, i like to watch it quite often...

some things of late

the other day i looked out my bedroom window down to the washing machine and saw a lizard larger than i cat. “my fucking god” i screamed and it jumped off and waddled away into our garden. waddle i say because it was actually large enough to have enough weight to require a waddle. this is not an exaggeration... the height of a regular cat, but wider and longer.

another interesting site... my normal drive from sanur to renon takes me from a 3 lane one way to a 2 lane two way... i zip that drive quite often as it leads me to seminyak, and renon is the home of my preferred internet cafe, not to mention the home of the man i visit most. so anyway, after some sort of music industry conference (i just used the wifi and said hello) im driving through, hit the two way and all of a sudden my little motorbike has to slow to about 40. well this of course is killing me because as always im late for the next place im supposed to be, so i weave back and forth until i get to the front of the line of this slow waiting traffic. oh of course... how could i not have guessed. there was a giant replica of the volcano Batur and its accompanying lake plopped on top of a giant yellow truck. a fucking volcano. it was too wide to scoot around the truck as the sides of it stuck off and one as tall as me (at a whopping 5’3’’) would have taken a head off. so i drive behind this volcano for awhile... the plastic trees making up the forest surrounding the lake were actually quite amazing... and then a thankful left onto the bypass to head home. the actual Batur by the way is totally worth a visit if youre here. its a quick but ass kicking hike, straight up a little slippery from the leftover volcanic sand, best done at about 4 am. you reach the top in time for sunrise and all of a sudden its magic morning looking over clouds, until they separate and you get to see the stunning shining blue of Lake Batur squinting back up at you.

ahhh a drive in bali. i actually run into quite a bit of trouble on my bike. its not the driving of the bike thats a problem, or even the insane traffic that now seems not very insane. rather its my constant habit of running out of gas and/or popping a tire. the gas tends to not be a problem as there always seems to be some kind young 14 year old riding by with no helmet happy to take my waiting (yes i keep one in my bike for this very purpose) aqua bottle and fill it with bensin. maybe thats my problem... ive made friends with all the petrol/bensin sellers in my area that i feel badly buying gas from the actual station. to clarify there are gas stations, and then there are a million bensin “stands” on the side of the road where you pay about 10 cents more to fill your tank with some cut diesel... which means it runs out faster... which propagates my run out cycle. which i guess keeps things interesting.

anyway... life is good these days and ive bought 2 of the 5 tickets necessary to get to my destination in India 12 days from today. cant wait... although of course its when you plan to leave that work always picks up and the youth center is garnering more and more support and hopefully at the end of August the afternoon program will begin to complement the courses we already have running.

ok back to indexing and james pants for me. oh and by the way... can somebody please tell me what thurston moore is doing working with starbucks?

also im totally behind the times as i live in asia but the lakai video, fully flared is killer


happy father’s day.

mau passionfruit orange lime

i started to write someone an email... "come run errands with me coffee in hand" and i realize that's whats missing from my life in asia. mobile coffee. not one place ive been has it as an option. interesting. if youre looking for a niche market in bali..... look no farther.

also look at this stuff:

such a rad project i think... would be a really fun activity for a mixed age group class - the younger kids could do the drawings and the older kids could do the photography utilizing the younger group for creating the set and as models




as always tiffany bozic is incredible





jon burgerman has a new book - well a couple months old. if i were in the US i would snnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaaag it. the illustration he did for rogue audio is also really rad


can NOT stop listening to young and restless. in fact listened to them through most of the 500 pages i indexed on presocratic philosophy in 48 hours this weekend. exciting stuff.

so this is what i fantasize about


our pembantu killed a baby python in the outdoor bathroom the other day. that would have been pretty exciting for me except i woke up after the whole event, so while im standing there in my towel going "whoa! wait! really? where?" everyone else is just sipping coffee and acting like i just found out that the internet exists.

the dog is also still missing. really im only writing this because i should be indexing and somehow typing right here is making me feel productive like its ok that im avoiding work and fantasizing about cameras. oooooooh that camera.

mixed bag

i want some more music recommendations please.

my brain these days is a mixed bag. i find myself speaking broken english and punctuating my indonesian sentences with italian. online i peruse portland's craiglist and india's textile factories. what does this say about my future? that currently im dividing my time between curriculum writing, hiring, and poster making for the youth center... working on a zine with university students... making some book that seems to be a much more difficult endeavor due to my language issues and buying tickets to india, writing business plans for portland. oh yeah... and being paid to teach english in seminyak which artificially makes me crave buying ridiculously expensive leather shoes off the bordering shopping strip, only to realize the japanese tourists have much more money than me and i really should just grow the patience to have them hand made for 15 bucks. i guess shane and cole did get me drunk the other night at which time i thought it was a great idea to splurge on a dress only to leave it in the bar lost forever. and then i got lost and made cole look for me for an hour only to end up sleeping in denpasar cole thinking im dead till my return the next afternoon. ahhhh life. something about getting closer to thirty is making me crave roots. i guess i have roots tangled up in iowa, western mass, san francisco and bali so i find the logical decision to start up a small business in oregon? dont ask me... i dont understand.

so here's the deal for the summer... ill be buying textiles from around the world, repping an asian skate company (maybe yes, maybe no), doing some booking on the side (something is finally coming out of all those failed relationships with djs and musicians :) ), and supporting progressive education initiatives in so many parts of this world. im working on a curriculum for children building composts. which means i touch some gross things... but they eventually turn into dirt that i do enjoy touching... and then i take cold showers or else fill a bucket up from the teapot and feel indulgent. im not sure how coming back to america is going to hit me over the head but i imagine for awhile ill be slightly bruised by the prices and combined ease.

so back to this music moment im craving happening... my motorbike rides of late have been filled with a lot of bounce your head music:

mobius band
metal urbain
cut copy
hall&oates is taking over my mornings
the gossip
morrisey is refilling my sundays
japanther
punks jump up
a whole lot of brian eno

then there's this mixtape my highschool boyfriend made me that ive been digitally recreating... mark morrison, tupac, kool & the gang, early daft punk,

overall pretty impressed with subpop's choices as of late.

due to a ridiculous amount of textile focus in my life most of what ive been looking at goes in that vein but check out:

http://www.patternpeople.com/

Lotte Reiniger


this vintage japanese wallpaper really gets me off
i have the hot pink version and i just spend a lot of time looking at it.


Tomer Hanuka... mmmmmmmhhmmmmmmm



im getting really into ikat in indonesia, generally i prefer indian ikat but the style is here is much more varied

however, the batik is my favorite


ok ill stop.

enjoy your day... tell me some music to listen to.

the thing is that i find myself totally in love... with my roommates, with my home, with my current situation, with the direction i am moving in life.

as of today i officially reside in a large white house somewhere in between sanur and denpasar bali. my room is long and small, off the main house, reminding me for no particular reason of a room on a ship. two small windows and pale blue white washed walls make me imagine ill peek out onto the sea. instead i view the main house and some sky mixed with green.

our backyard, sprawling and attractively overgrown, is filled with mango trees, frangipani, orchids of all shapes and sizes (the former owner was a collector), bamboo which the cook adds to our lunch, a hindu temple, staff housing hidden at one end, and a long covered porch with a wide wooden table, carved wood lounge couch, paintbrushes, guitars, overhead fans and a perfect morning view of my favorite: the lotus pond. ooooweeeeee it is lovely. when i first arrived (today is official as i moved into my room but ive been here for at least a week), pink lotus flowers hovered above the water. somehow yesterday new blossoms of a literal glowing orange emerged. insane. totally beautiful and somehow the garden of my dreams where i take my morning kopi black out into the grass, and gaze.

in fact i do a lot of gazing here in bali. at night the stars are incredible. a recent holiday nyepi required no electricity to be used on the entire island for a 24 hour period. after a night of candlelight indoor picnic, guitar playing and cards we went outside only for my eyes to zoom into and back out of a sky that seemed so close i could punch my fist through it.

on more logistical topics, our location leaves me 5 minutes from a surfing beach and 15 from so many others. close to the club scene, local distros, music venues and warungs, we are surrounded by rice fields leaving freedom for silence or loud music at our will. mostly we go for music.

on to the roommates... they include thor, my dear friend who just moved down from ubud to attend music school (his blues guitar is banging) and work for his sister lakota’s record label. lakota is of course my favorite roommate if that’s appropriate to say. wise beyond her or anyone’s years she inspires me at every turn. literally i turn into the kitchen and she’s giving me ideas for my non-profit, i sit at the outdoor table to draw in my book and she’s telling me her merchandising plan, i gaze at the garden and she fills me on the local permaculture developments, i mention my side job of booking artists at the local clubs and she’s connected me to contacts in the scene. she manages the band navicula, just started zygote records, all while taking on a management position of the graphics team for a popular national surfing company. i am more than impressed. her boyfriend robi is a rock star here in bali - the singer and guitar player of a grunge band Navicula. Robi is total sunshine who’s stage presence is intimidating... he plays guitar, sets up studio’s, was signed to sony, went back to being independent, receives fan mail, writes children’s songs, makes me smoothies, and tells stories with the most incredible gesticulation.
Ian, the owner of the house, is quiet on the front side with a face that every girlfriend of mine falls in love with when they come over. he is the front man of the band kaim which some of you may have read my article on last year. he just got an mbox and spends most of his time writing beats creating for me the familiar situation of background noise of pro tools playing loops over and over creating a lull until it turns into a song. which he then sells. and then picks up the guitar which is great but nothing compared to when he sings. his voice is addictive, his personality mellow and he speaks english but doesnt seem to like to so hopefully my indonesian will improve from his company. ian is the person in bali that most reminds me of my boys from home.

i find myself here, more productive than ever... the resource of an open office in our home - a large room hosting musicians, graphic designers, the label’s street team, my volunteers all wandering in and out - lends me to find no excuses for not working on my mobile education project touring the most impoverished areas of bali, putting together an environmental curriculum for a local youth center, scanning local artists and musicians for a collaborative book project, learning about permaculture, drawing daily, and picking up a guitar in the morning. im turning brown playing in the waves, and constantly surrounding myself with music, a new love for a new metal band, booking house and techno dj’s on the side, and zipping up to ubud often on my motorbike - ipod on, warm breeze moving fast to sit in coffee shops with free internet, visiting sara, and playing with babies.

at this moment... i couldnt be happier.

Bali

So I'm starting a new blog. I guess to document less the rambles of my mind and more the wandering i do in life. My most recent move has been back to Bali.

My dear darling whom I met last year while working for Yayasan Bumi Sehat in Ubud, Bali, Kayla Barnes and I started a small non-profit: International Community Project.

Our Mission:

"to support sustainable community projects in developing countries. We accomplish this by implementing projects for: educational opportunities, creative endeavors, public health initiatives, community sustainability and cultural preservation. Our goal is to nurture positive environments and encourage the creative potential of all communities."

International Community Project provides support in the areas of infrastructure building, awareness and public relations, volunteer opportunities and direct funding. We help small community projects and NGOs become functioning, sustainable and successful.


So to kick off and get work started I find myself back in Bali, working in the field on quite a few projects.

Currently however, Im sitting in an over air conditioned bar that doubles as a restaurant/internet hot spot during the day. The music is quite bad and thus while working on a proposal for ICP's board I'm also browsing the web for music. What I've found to keep me on the up and up includes:

White Shoes and the Couples Company -
one of my favorite Indonesian bands that I'm sadly missing in San Francisco on the 20th. If you're around, check them out at the Make-Out Room in the Mission.

love psychedelico -
darling japanese band. japanese and english intertwined. sortof my new morning music.


and to add a little variety... the new fecal face podcast.

Last year I was living in Ubud, Bali. This time I'm calling a white house in between Sanur and Denpasar home. In my house lives Lakota, Robi, Ian, Thor and a dog named Bule. Aptly named as its a white dog and Bule is the slang term for westerner. hmmm.

the walls are all white, the backyard is filled with orchids and a lotus pond, and the stars are incredible. another thing that makes me happy is the home's proximity to the beach, which means that if im not surfing a lot then something is wrong with me.

The location allows me mobility as I am traveling around the island for a mobile education project (more info to come), going to Ubud to work with a youth center there, and starting projects in denpasar as well as sanur.

things are on the up up up and up.